President’s Column, February 2006

There hasn’t been an event since last month’s column, but as I write this, we’ve got one of our biggies right around the corner with the Annual Dinner/Election Meeting.  Next month we’ll devote more time to that dinner, but that event is traditionally the end of one club year and the beginning of the next and it gives me a chance to reflect on last year a bit. 

I was personally disappointed that we were unable to fill our ballot last year when only eight candidates ran for member-at-large.  We had a strong write-in for two other members, but they declined.  You wouldn’t think that there would be that much difference between a board consisting of ten people and a board consisting of twelve people, but it did seem to take its toll on the number of events we held in 2005. 

I am encouraged that we have a full ballot this year and that we will have some new blood on the board as well, so I’m hopeful that 2006 will be more like our usual calendar, at least as far as quantity goes.

We sent three representatives to the Driving Events Conference in Dallas, TX in January and I look forward to hearing what they learned there that we can use to make our Driver’s Schools even better.  Speaking of Driver’s Schools, Lime Rock has sent out their calendar so far and right now it looks like we will have three dates, April 7^th, May 5^th and September 22^nd, all Fridays.  Of course, Lime Rock has raised all their pricing again, but we haven’t met to decide how that will impact our registration fees, if at all.  I wouldn’t hesitate to sign up for April though, in case the registration goes up for the later events.

Our upcoming event is the Winter Doldrums Party on March 4^th.  Now I can tell you right now that I will get e-mails from members who didn’t write the date down when they read about it in the January issue and won’t write it down when they read about it in this issue and then when they get their March issue after the 4^th, they’ll say they missed it because they didn’t get their DZ in time.  Don’t be one of those people.

Have you seen the pictures of the BMW Sauber F1 car in its official livery?  I really like the paint scheme and I think it will look very distinctive on the track.  Of course, how much exposure it will get on TV will depend upon whether or not they can run competitively, which would be quite surprising, so you might want to check it out on the Internet if you’re interested.  So far, they’ve been off the pace in testing, so they’ve got some ground to make up.

In News From National, membership stands at 75,086, down slightly from last year, but there is encouraging news regarding the membership drive.  Five hundred and twenty new members have been signed up so far through the program.  I hope that you remembered to vote in the National election, since our region has two contested positions for which to vote plus the proposed bylaws changes.  David McIntyre has been appointed as Chairman of the Club Racing Program.  Lastly, Connecticut Valley remains the 11^th largest Chapter in the BMW CCA, just 94 members outside of the top 10.  I have some nifty business card sized BMW CCA recruiting tools if you would like some to get out there and get involved in the membership drive.  Instead of carrying around the old brochure, all the info the prospective member needs can be found on this little card, including your name and membership number, as the person that referred them to the club, so that you will get credit in the membership drive.  Please let me know if you would like some.

That brings me to the end of another month.  Hope to see you at an event soon.